By Goodluck Ikiebe
Labour Unions in Nigeria will resume negotiations with the government on a new minimum wage later today, Wednesday, by 4pm.
Organised Labour has on Tuesday rejected the N54,000 proposed by the Federal government as a new minimum wage.
FG had in a meeting with Labour proposed N54,000 as against its earlier N48,000 offer. One of the leaders of the Organised Labour who attended the meeting revealed this to newsmen in Abuja after talks.
Organised Labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, walked out on the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage following the proposed N48,000 as minimum wage by the Federal Government.
Last week Organised Labour told FG to perish any thought of offering N100,000 as the new minimum wage.
It also asked the government to be serious with negotiations on the issue of workers’ wages, insisting that it used the lowest minimum in arriving at N615,000 as the new minimum wage.
It was learnt that representatives of the federal government offered the minimum wage different from the N48,000 that was offered last week but members of the organised labour maintained their stance that only N615,000 is a living wage for workers.
Members of both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) stormed out in anger at a meeting that was held last week with a view to meet the May 31 deadline.
The two labour unions after the meeting summoned an emergency news briefing where they wondered why the government and members of the organised private sector disgraced Nigerian workers with what they described as “ridiculous offers”.
At the resumed meeting on Tuesday, our correspondent gathered that the representatives of the government offered N54,000 as a new minimum wage, the development that made the meeting to end in a stalemate.
An official of TUC, who spoke to our correspondent with a directive that his name should not be mentioned explained that there was so much “macrebadance” before the government even put forward N54,000.
“After so much dilly-dallying, the federal government side at Tuesday’s minimum wage negotiation meeting proposed N54,000. But because the representatives of the state governors do not have the mandate to endorse or reject whatever the federal government proposes, we will hear their decision before we respond.”
“So by tomorrow, (Wednesday) at 4pm when the meeting will sit again to continue the negotiations, we will hear their input and then reveal our position. We have also met with the Organised Private Sector (OPS) and discussed.
“Our intent is to have a hitch free negotiation on their side. We did this because we are poised to do everything possible to ensure that negotiation is concluded and Nigerian workers have a new minimum wage by May 31.
“We are very serious about taking actions in the interest of protecting and promoting the welfare of Nigerian workers. So on our part, we will do our best to ensure smooth negotiation.
“But any form of delay tactics on the government side will attract serious industrial action. So for now, we have not revealed a new figure”, the labour leader
noted.
